


Cognitive Dissonance

by Kedibonye



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cultural Differences, Gen, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Misunderstandings, Non-Explicit, POV Outsider, Reincarnation, Second Shinobi War, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 08:21:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14468688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kedibonye/pseuds/Kedibonye
Summary: From the outside, a self-insert with an incomplete knowledge of Naruto would exhibit behaviors that were either terrifying, creepy, or both.Or: Take an overly-intelligent young woman from our world, sprinkle in a half-remembered traumatic backstory that led to her untimely demise and severe trust issues. Reincarnate her into the world of Naruto in the period before the Second Great Shinobi War as the daughter of one of the most famous ninja of the era. Then sit back and watch the chaos unfold as her deeply ingrained western sense of morality clashes with that of the Elemental Nations.





	Cognitive Dissonance

_Cursed child_ was the first thought Yura had when she laid eyes on the girl. She’d been with Minori throughout the _tayu_ woman’s pregnancy. An infant, but already the child was taking after her father, because she’d made her first kill.

 

Yura didn’t know why Minori’s contraceptives had failed. Didn’t know why she chose to keep the child. Didn’t understand why she was so insistent that there be no official documentation of her unborn child’s existence or birth.

 

Now, there was just her and the child, while the Mother was in the other room with a corpse. For a moment, she wondered what would happen if her arm just slipped. Babies were such fragile things, and so easily broken…

 

A gurgle, and Yura instinctively looked down. Her heart stuttered at the girl’s eyes. Her two bright blue eyes, so much like Minori’s that it _burned._

_Kanami._ A fulfilled dream. But whose?

 

===

 

 _Cursed child_.

 

Yura found herself thinking the words once more as she caught sight of Kanami in the back of Mother’s office. She was focused and still. Unnaturally so, because three-year-olds were _not_ supposed to have that kind of attention span.

 

Her eyes had lost their color over the years, to the point they were now as much gray as blue. Kanami’s eyes were incredibly expressive, but the emotions they bespoke did not belong in a toddler. Sometimes, she’d get this look on her face as though she saw right through the older women around her. Saw right through to judge their soul, and found it wanting.

 

No child should have eyes like that.

 

She didn’t _react_ like a normal child did, either. Yura could only assume it was her father’s fault; she’d never been around shinobi-bred children before. After meeting Kanami, she was more thankful than ever that she hadn’t.

 

In her sleep, Kanami would occasionally emit strange, unnatural sounds. Yura was half-convinced the child was possessed; occasionally Kanami would repeat them in daylight when she thought no one would hear. Yura wasn’t quite sure how Ayane or the Mother managed to tolerate her so easily.

 

On her own, Yura would have called an exorcist months ago.

 

===

 

_Demon child._

 

Two years later, she was sure that was the only logical explanation for the moment of unadulterated terror she felt when Kanami learned of Ayane’s demise.

 

She could barely stand to be in the same room as the _hanyou_ without feeling the urge to flee. The Mother’s ( _her_ ) office had long been where the child slept, but Yura felt a bit safer once she’d moved the girl as far away as reasonably possible. Any guilt she might have felt over the move was alleviated the moment she laid eyes on the girl’s contract. It was obscene just how much money had been invested into Kanami in scarcely more than five years; outrageous expenses on her behalf ranging from books to an unbelievable amount of ink, practice paper, and calligraphy brushes.

 

The girl had somehow managed to become even creepier since then. Yura wasn’t even aware that’d been objectively _possible_ until it happened. She’d be silent and fairly still before, but now…

 

Sometimes, it was as though her mind wasn’t there at all. She’d taken over the laundry, an unexpected but welcome benefit from moving her downstairs. Yura wasn’t quite brave enough to try to hire a replacement for Ayane in the kitchens, not when she’d experienced the girl’s murderous intent herself and wasn’t certain an addition would be welcome.

 

Kanami would go about her daily tasks mindlessly. It went far beyond simple daydreaming. Her eyes would become utterly lifeless, her movements mechanical and precise. Asuka, her _imouto_ , had made the mistake of walking in on a nonchalant Kanami cleaning the kitchen one day. She’d found the girl with a line of blood dripping down the side of her neck. When she’d shrieked worriedly, Kanami’s response had been delayed.

 

She’d looked at Asuka like _Asuka_ was the crazy one before a flash of comprehension had dawned on her face and she gently touched her own ear.

 

When her fingers came back red, she’d stared at it for a moment then said, “Huh. Well, that explains where it was going. Thank you, Asuka-san.” Still impossibly calm, and she’d walked off towards the washroom with a brief nod.

 

Asuka had run away a week later. Just like that, Kanami had claimed her second victim.

 

 _Hanyou_ indeed.

 

===

 

_Not truly a child._

 

That’s what Yura tells herself, staring down at her ledgers and thinking about the agreement she’d just made. Business has not been doing well, has been on the downturn since before Kurenai’s death. Now, tensions are bad enough that tourism is drying up. Those that visit find no need to visit an _oiran_.

 

It doesn’t help, either, that new establishments catered to changing tastes have begun to pop up. _Geisha_ , they call themselves. Humility, simplicity, and a distinct lack of the elaborate hair and dress _oiran_ spent years cultivating.

 

She’d turned down similar inquiries in the past. Some sought Maika, but the girl’s age and upcoming _mizuage_ allowed Yura to redirect potential clients in that direction. A few, Hien. At ten, the girl was already showing signs of the classically beautiful woman she would one day become. Hien’s nee-chan would never allow any harm to befall her precious _kamaru_ , though, and Yura herself was relatively fond of the girl. They’d been politely, if firmly, turned away. This was not that kind of establishment.

 

None had asked for Kanami, before. Finances weren’t desperate yet, but they were close.

 

 _It’s not wrong_ , Yura tells herself. Kanami’s hardly a child, had never really been one.

 

She’d explicitly defined limitations on the client. Kanami would still, in time, be able to have a _mizuage_ of her own.

 

 _It’s not wrong_. Yura tells herself this, even as she pointedly doesn’t see the red eyes and tear stained face of Kanami the next day.

 

===

 

 _Hanyou._ When she’d first called Kanami that, she’d neglected the fact it implied the girl was half-human as well.

 

Yura pointedly doesn’t see the dark bags under Kanami’s eyes. When the girl takes ill one day, voice destroyed from days of hacking and coughing, and she begins to cry out in her dreams… Yura does not have to recognize the words, or the language, to understand the tone.

 

Even as she hardens her heart, she finds herself feeling some pity.

 

The others, aside from Kyoko, refuse to go near Kanami these days. Yura doesn’t blame them, yet she finds herself as the girl’s caretaker at the height of her delirium.

 

She can’t change things, however. At this point, Kanami has become one of their highest earners; the establishment might well collapse without her.

 

She assuages the feelings she ignores by ensuring Kanami’s every desire is catered to. Not that the girl seemed to want anything. Especially, Yura suspected, if it came from her. She carefully screens the girl’s clients.

 

If she turned the worst away, it wasn’t wrong.

 

She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince.

 

===

 

_Forsaken child._

Yura’s never personally interacted with a shinobi before now. She knows this meeting is abnormal. She finds herself being more combative than she should, and it’s only when the ninja cuts her off, placing a strange emphasis on the word ‘child’ in his statement, that Yura acknowledges why.

 

She’d lost her family to Konohagakure, nearly twenty years ago now. Yura didn’t even like Kanami. Couldn’t afford to, and so she’d cloaked her guilt, buried it entirely within herself. Kanami wanted for nothing. Though she was young yet, her future prospects were looking bright; she had a half-dozen powerful men wrapped around her fingers already, when she herself had yet to turn seven.

 

Yura told herself she had been forced by circumstance to make the decisions she had. She meticulously updated Kanami’s records with every client, considering a generous percentage of her profits for each reduction. Her debts would remain high for years, but they were no longer quite so exorbitant and would eventually reach a level that a decent, wealthier client might be willing to entertain.

 

Yura’s not a naïve woman. Ninja had killed her sister, who had scarcely been three. Had Minori known, all those years ago, that they would one day come for Kanami? In attempting to delay the inevitable, had they sealed the girl’s fate?

 

The only record of Kanami’s existence was her contract. Even that was debatable proof. Kanami was still a _kamaru_ ; until her _mizuage_ she would not be given her official name as an _oiran._ Until that time, she would be referred to as her mentor’s assistant. Kanami was still listed as Kurenai’s; she’d been a ward of the brothel—and thus, the current Mother—since birth, and there had been no real reason to amend the paperwork since then as it was primarily a matter of tradition. Yura suspects the shinobi knows this, and she can imagine a dozen different scenarios that they’d be looking for a girl so young with those characteristics and the skills Kanami possesses. None of them are good.

 

It'd been pointless, but she’d been trying in her own way to protect the girl from the fate the shinobi confirmed was in store for her should Kanami leave with the ninja.

 

Yura was just as helpless in the face of ninja now as she’d been all those years ago. So she packed her guilt away, and drafted the paperwork.

 

She told herself she’d never really cared. When she told Kanami, and the girl had expressed visible emotions for the first time in a long time, Yura had snapped. The sheer contempt radiating off Kanami, the mix of hatred and disgust directed at Yura even though she’d had no real say in the matter was too much for her.

 

Yura told herself she didn’t care when the girl left with the shinobi. Two days later, she realized that her copy of the contract with Konoha was missing.

 

Yura cried silently for the cursed child who’d never stood a chance.

 

===

 

It was a standard escort mission for Mokume Kunugi and his partner Katou Dan. A month and a half of travel, with periodic stops in villages on the way between the border of Tea Country and Fire. They’d just arrived in Kisaragi, their final stop before Konoha, and it was shaping up to be just as uneventful as the rest of their mission had been.

 

A crashing sound drew Kunugi’s attention. He suspected his week had just gotten a lot more complicated.

 

“Dan,” he said, drawing the attention of his fellow chuunin. “Does that girl remind you of someone?”

 

Dan looked over to where Kunugi had gestured, the source of the noise.

 

It was a young child, the near-spitting image of Jiraiya save for a few differences in coloration.

 

“Shit,” Dan swore, “One of us should probably go look in to that.”

 

It could be a coincidence, but that was unlikely. Jiraiya was the student of the Sandaime, and he and his teammates were already building their own reputations. Jiraiya was well-known as an incorrigible womanizer, so there were two main directions this could go in. One, it might be exactly what it looked like: Jiraiya had sired a bastard. Or, two: this was some sort of plot by an enemy village. The former, unfortunately, wouldn’t necessarily preclude the latter.

 

“I’ll go,” Kunugi volunteered. He wasn’t nearly as good with kids as Dan, but he desperately needed a brief break from their clients.

 

The kid, it turns out, is _adorable_. She speaks and behaves like a tiny adult in a child’s body for the most part and has a surprisingly well-developed sense of humor. Her behavior makes more sense when he learns that she’s being raised in one of the more well-known pleasure houses in Kisaragi. He’s no sensor-nin, but up close he can tell that she has an active chakra network ( _at four!_ ) and that the marks under her eyes are clearly natural, like Jiraiya’s. As she loosens up around him, she becomes more exuberant; her cheesy smiles, extravagant hand gestures, and interesting way of speaking that casually mixes the slang of the red-latern district with more advanced vocabulary is very reminiscent of the Toad Summoner.

 

He finds it utterly hilarious that she’d apparently learned to read on romance novels. It’s not long, though, before he has to make his excuses and head back to Dan.

They’re going to be filing a very interesting report when they get back to Konoha.

 

 

It is two years before Kunugi sees Kanami again.

 

For a variety of reasons, Kanami’s case was incredibly complicated. The most reliable form of paternity testing involves an in-depth chakra scan of both parties. It’s something which requires specialized equipment, and several hours per person. It’s expensive; the type of chakra scan required is generally only done in the case of suspected sleeper agents, which is what the test was originally designed to detect.

 

Jiraiya was training as a Toad Sage when Kanami was first discovered. He’s out of contact for nearly eighteen months before the Sandaime gets him back in the village long enough to tell him about the ongoing situation and to get him to sit for a chakra scan.

 

The Intelligence division puts together an analysis of Kanami’s situation. The lack of any sort of verifiable documentation of her presence in Fire other than her existing _kamaru_ contract—no birth certificate, no household registration or citizenship papers—sets off several red flags.

 

Then Tsunade learns of Kanami, and she goes off an invents an entire new field of paternity testing involving “Leukocyte Antigens” and other medical terms Kunugi doesn’t know. Apparently, it merely requires blood samples from the parties involved. It won’t definitely determine parentage, but with its 80% exclusion rate it’s what tips the scales in favor of bringing the probable-relation back to Konoha at last. Everyone has a sense that another Great War is coming, and no one is willing to let a potential Daughter of Konoha to get caught in the crossfire, especially not one so young who is incredibly unlikely to be a deliberate infiltrator.

 

A full chakra scan will need to be done when Kanami arrives in Konoha, of course, and until that’s done it’s safer for everyone involved that the close relation remain a well-kept secret.

 

Kunugi thinks he’s prepared for the changes in Kanami since their brief, initial meeting. The profile the Intelligence division put together on the girl is fairly sparse, but suggests a quiet and withdrawn child much different then the one Kunugi had met.

 

It’s worse than that, and when he speaks to the Mother of the establishment, it becomes clear why. He gives her the basic cover story upon request, that one of their shinobi had taken an interest in her potential. He doesn’t expect the Mother to interpret the statement the way she does, is actually offended by the insinuations she makes turning Konohagakure shinobi into both slave owners and child molesters. His tone turns frosty, and by the time his conversation ends he’s furious.

 

Kunugi’s been raised with the words of the First Hokage echoing in his ears, who taught that “a true shinobi does not merely dance to the tune of whoever pays the piper.” He’s been raised in the first village to outright ban slavery of any kind in its constitution, in a city where the Uchiha Military Police exist to stop serious criminals in their tracks, where a child molester could expect to be executed and any accomplices they might have to be severely punished at best.

 

Konohagakure is not perfect, and it’s not uncommon for the average non-Hidden Village cilivian to see shinobi as terrifying thugs and murderers, and kunoichi as sinister seductresses and assasins. However, even shinobi draw their lines in the sand somewhere, and what Kanami’s clearly afraid of is definitively over that line.

 

What the _fuck_ had happened in the past two years, and _why the hell_ hadn’t Intelligence picked up on it?

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually an interlude taken from my own foray into the classic reincarnation tropes. I'm not sure if the broader story will ever see the light of day, but this bit functions well enough to serve as a stand-alone, I think. Feedback always welcome. (:


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